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RayStorm is the second game in RAY series and originally released for Taito FX-1 arcade board in 1996. RayStorm is the second game in the RAY series, but continuity-wise it set in different universe as RayForce and RayCrisis. While it retains the same base gameplay as RayForce (the two attack layers), RayStorm features some major improvements over its predecessors, including two new playable ships (plus an unlockable extra one on the PlayStation port or two for the HD re-release), a chargeable smart bomb/special attack (Laser Barrage), a high-powered full lock-on attack (hyper laser), and fully 3D polygonal graphics.

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In the year 2119 A.D., space travel became a reality. With all of the nations on Earth working together, humanity expanded throughout our solar system, setting up colony after colony. To maintain a reasonable level of peace and security, the government of Earth established a "Star Federation." This Federation would be responsible for controlling all of the colonies local governments.

It is now 2119 A.D.. In the past one hundred years Earth quickly expanded its colonies all the way to Orion. However, the Star Federation has found it increasingly difficult to keep security in all colonized sectors. Therefore, the Federation heavy handedly put all of the twenty space colonies under strict martial law. As the Federation continued to tighten its iron grip, the space colonies mutinied.

On the planet Secilia, the strongest of the colonies, the rebels established the "Secilia Federation," and began their fight for freedom. They won sweeping victories, and finally defeated Earth and its Star Federation.

Not content with winning the war, the Secilia Federation transferred all of Earth's inhabitants to the colonies and announced its intention to destroy the Earth. After suppressing the opposition from the colonies, a special strike force was sent to destroy the Earth.

However, hidden deep within the Balca section, a new spacecraft, developed under the code name "R-GRAY", has been completed. It was built from thirteen different Secilia ships and features a highly experimental weapon system. This is the only ship capable of stopping the Secilia Federation from destroying the Earth. With all mankind's future at stake, the time has come to attack the Secilia Federation in a desperate assault to gain reprieve from Earth's death sentence - OPERATION: RAYSTORM.

Sony Playstation: The Sony Playstation port was released in 1997 and features many enhancements and additions:

Two different game modes, Arcade Mode (original arcade stages) and Extra Mode (arranged stages with different stage appearance, enemy/boss color and attack patterns, and different ending)

Selectable original (Zuntata) and remixed (Neu Tanz) soundtracks for the Extra Mode

Adjustable Stage Difficulty, individual difficulty sliders for each stage of the game

Extra options are rewarded upon game completion:

13 Ships Mode - Unlocked upon completion of Extra Mode for the first time. Go though the entire game using only 13 ships/lives without continues. Two from each fighter type (R-Gray 1 and R-Gray 2) and each lock-on mode (Auto, Manual) and R-Gray 0 are available for use. The player will be forced to switch ship type for each two lives/ships lost, ship deployment order can be changed via option menu.

Stage Select - Unlocked upon completion of Arcade Mode or Extra Mode. This mode allows player to select and play an individual stage. Each stage records the highest score, destruction/lock-on shoot down rate and ship used.

Working Design localized and published the PlayStation port under their SPAZ label. This version features limited credits (which can be set to unlimited via a cheat command), higher overall difficulty by default and a "Training Mode" which forces the game to end after Stage 4 when an individual stage difficulty is set to below threshold or player life option set above the default value.

Windows: RayStorm was ported for Windows 95/98 by CyberFront (who were responsible for porting many Taito's arcade title to PC, including RayCrisis). Overall it was largely ported from the original Japanese PlayStation version with the exclusion of Neu Tanz remixed soundtrack. This port also runs at higher resolution (up to 640x480) and has better sound quality.

PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360: RayStorm HD was released on PlayStation 3 through PlayStation Network and Xbox 360 through Xbox LIVE Arcade in 2010. The PlayStation 3 version was only available in Japan while the Xbox 360 version is available internationally. Features remastered, high-definition (720p) graphics with a 16:9 widescreen aspect-ratio, online leaderboards, shareable replays, and two new unlockable ships.

iOS: TAITO released an iOS port of RayStorm in 2012, one year after the iOS re-release of RayForce. The iOS port features adjustable ship movement speed, Arcade Mode and iPhone Mode (named Remix Mode in Android version) which is essentially the Extra Mode with toned down difficulty.

Android - An enhanced port for Android devices featuring controller support, high resolution in-game UI and an extra arranged track from ZUNTATA was released on June 29th, 2017 for both Android and iOS devices (as an update for the previously released version). On September 12th, 2017, RayStorm was released on Amazon Appstore with an exclusive remixed Area 2 background music by Yu Shimoda from ZUNTATA.